Angel : Only Human

David Messina Interview (With New Previews, Covers, and Major Major Stuff) Just call this Buffyverse Comics-Con, because damn we’ve got some crazy stuff here. The main attraction is an interview with David Messina, who has been doing the art for ANGEL as long as IDW has had it. We were really lucky to get insight into the process of the most prolific man in comics, and get ready for some crazy images in the interview.

Buffyverse Comic Reviews: How did you originally get involved with IDW? With the ANGEL title?

David Messina: I was introduced to Chris Ryall by a common friend (Alexandra DeCampi) who told me that Chris was looking for someone to draw an upcoming miniseries based on a tv show: Angel.

The funniest part was that I’m a longtime fan of Angel (I’ve learned English watching the TV show DVDs) and when Chris contacted me, I had just finished some sketches of Angel that I wanted to show to the Dark Horse’s people (I was ignoring that Angel’s licensing passes to IDW) so I sent those sketches to Chris.

BCR: The first comic I ever bought was ANGEL: Old Friend #2 (I know, I’m a noob). After getting and enjoying that, I collected the entire IDW Angel line, from "The Curse" all the way up to the current stuff. Watching your style evolve from your already amazing work in "The Curse" to your recent stuff has been a joy. Can you talk a bit about the progression of your style?

Messina: It’s like I started a long journey, and it’s still unfinished! When I started, I was really concerned about the likeness. So with "The Curse" I was really concerned to be realistic, to nail the likeness with the actors, and I was afraid to become stiff... Then I started to work on "Old Friends" where I tried a different way. My favorite artist in those days was Chris Sprouse and all the old Disney animation school, so I try to make my style more cartoonish and grotesque. I exasperated Angel’s body (really bulk) and every characters likeness in order to make them more recognizable. But I was still unsatisfied... Each series was an experiment. An attempt to make the characters recognizable and find the best way to tell a story, which is the most important thing in this work. I had try different tools, for example Auld Lang Syne was almost entirely inked with common pen instead ink pen!

I start to feel in the right path (but even now, I don’t know where it will bring me) during the work in progress of Star Trek: Mirror Images...

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Click on the link for more :

http://buffyversecomics.blogspot.com/2009/07/david-messina-interview-with-new.html